Massive hiring freeze trend in South Africa

 In 2022, hiring freezes and layoffs will become more common domestically and internationally, according to Nedgroup, as CEOs in South Africa and the United States attempt to cut costs in preparation for a possible recession.

The most recent Pulse Report for November from Big Tech, which examined both domestic and international markets, reveals that the company has been terminating a number of employees since December 2021.

At Tesla, Twitter, Amazon, and the tech conglomerate Meta, which Elon Musk founded, over tens of thousands of employees have been laid off.

According to Nedgroup, among the numerous tech companies that have reduced their workforce, Twitter has received the most media attention. This took place following Elon Musk's purchase of the business on October 28.

“He started a massive overhaul of the company's teams and business model and laid off fifty percent of Twitter's 7,500 employees. According to Nedgroup, "financial backers are igniting worries that widespread disintegration of the work market is not too far off" due to the reported cuts in the tech sector this year.

However, Goldman Sachs claims that tech layoffs are not indicative of such a slowdown for the following reasons:

 The number of tech jobs available has significantly increased since the pandemic. Tech layoff announcements have not preceded total layoff announcement spikes.

However, in every South African industry, big business has looked to layoffs as a way to get through these uncertain economic times.

 According to the most recent CEO Outlook from KPMG, more than 80% of South African CEOs have implemented or plan to implement a hiring freeze within the next few months.

KPMH interviewed fifty top CEOs from a variety of industries between July and August to find out how they see the country and its future. After that, the poll of domestic CEOs was compared to 1,300 other global executives.

In light of the impending recession, associations and their leaders, according to KPMG, are being forced to reevaluate their strategies, with skill maintenance being one of the primary concerns being addressed.

Similar to the 39% of CEOs worldwide who have stopped hiring new employees, the 36% of South African CEOs surveyed have done the same.

In spite of upgrades in a few financial areas, the country's joblessness rate stays beneath the pre-pandemic level. Despite the recent one percentage point increase in the unemployment rate from 32.9% to 33.9%, the outlook remains gloomy, according to economists employed by the Bureau of Economic Research.

They noticed that real gross domestic product had outpaced work recuperation.